East Carolina football coach Steve Logan found a silver lining in those rain clouds over Wallace Wade Stadium on Saturday night.

In the aftermath of a 23-16 upset that snapped a 23-game losing streak for Duke, Logan was positive about his team’s ability to get back in the game from a 20-0 deficit, Paul Troth’s first start at quarterback and about improvements in the defense.

Logan’s first statement in his postgame news conference was to congratulate Duke coach Carl Franks, which was entirely proper.

“He’s put together a fine young team,” Logan said. “They played well and took advantage of our mistakes. They took care of the ball. We didn’t. That was just about the end of the game right there.”

Duke’s 4-0 edge in turnovers was much more decisive than the final score. The Blue Devils’ first 10 points came on possessions following ECU turnovers and a 28-yard interception return put Duke up 20-0 with 8:44 left in the first half. That’s 17 points in a seven-point game and that’s the short answer to what produced such a stunning outcome.

ECU did not have a first down prior to the interception return but pieced together a 65-yard drive to get within 20-7 on its next series. Art Brown rushed for 30 of his 46 yards for the game, including a 2-yard touchdown carry on that drive.

But the running game’s net of a mere 25 yards was disappointing, considering the offensive line was perceived as a strength of this year’s team. Logan said that Leonard Henry would have been more effective under the conditions at Duke because he was more of a straight-ahead runner. Brown and his back-up, Marvin Townes, rely on speed and cutting ability, which was obviously reduced by the amount of water that had fallen on the playing surface.

The lack of running production placed more pressure on Troth to move the team with his passing, a situation the Pirates wanted to avoid in their game plan. The general struggle of the receivers to hang on to catchable passes was another problem.

“Any time you don’t have a running game, it puts a lot of pressure on a quarterback,” said the Pirates coach. “But we’ll go back. I’m pretty confident we’ll get our running game put together again.”

ECU’s restructured defense is designed to defend against spread offenses which predominate in Conference USA. But ECU’s speedy young linebackers were overmatched by Alex Wade, Duke’s bruising fullback, in the slippery conditions in the season opener. Wade ran for 109 yards and gave Duke a ball-control dimension after ECU had trimmed the lead to 20-16.

Chris Douglas, Duke’s leading rusher a year ago was a non-factor with 10 carries for 26 yards but Wade averaged 4.5 yards per tote. Adjustments to big backs such as Wake Forest’s Ovie Mughelli and Southern Miss’ Derrick Nix will have to be made.

Still, Duke converted only six of 18 third downs. Foes converted 45 percent against ECU last year so that area showed improvement.

“We played better third down defense than we did all of last year,” Logan said.

Troth was 13 for 31 for 130 yards with three interceptions and would have easily completed 50 percent of his passes in trying conditions had his receivers had an average night.

“I liked a lot of the things I saw with Paul,” Logan said. “He made one bad read when he threw the interception that went for a touchdown. That was really his only big mistake. He showed very good mobility. He moved around the pocket well. I think he’s going to be a really, really fine quarterback. I’m highly, highly encouraged with what I saw tonight.”

The Pirates will be a better team than a loss to Duke would indicate. Logan is 3-8 in season openers, with many against national powers. But his career record is 65-51. The ship can be righted. Hey, ECU’s best season ever, the 11-1 Peach Bowl champs in 1991, started with a 38-31 loss at Illinois. That was the only other game the Pirates have played on Aug. 31.